Carroll Davidson Wright 



A MEMORIAL 



HORACE G. WABLIN 




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PRESENTED BY 









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Carroll Davidson Wright 



A MEMORIAL 



By HORACE G. WADLIN, Litt.D. 

Librarian Boston Public Library; Chief Massachusetts Bureau 
Statistics of Labor, 1888-1903 



Boston 

Wright & Potter Printing Company, State Printers 

18 Post Office Square 

1911 



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Carroll Davidson Wright. 

A MEMORIAL. 



I. 

Carroll Davidson Wright, the Second Chief of the Massachusetts 
Bureau of Statistics of Labor, afterwards Commissioner of Labor 
of the United States and still later president of Clark College, 
Worcester, Massachusetts, died in the city of Worcester, February 20, 
1909. His work, from the point of view of its results, was unique. 
He created the peculiar department of the public service to which 
his life was mainly devoted. When he entered this service, bureaus 
of original investigation devoted to the collection and presentation of 
statistical information relating to sociology, particularly to that 
branch of sociology included under the broad term " the labor ques- 
tion," were practically unknown; when he left the office of Com- 
missioner of Labor such offices were recognized as important and 
necessary branches of government. 

The Massachusetts Bureau was not only the first institution of 
its kind, but, under Colonel Wright's direction, the form of its 
organization and the theory under which it was operated were found 
so acceptable that this department served as a model for the crea- 
tion of similar bureaus in other States, a national bureau at Washing- 
ton, and Departments of Labor in several foreign countries. This 
chain of offices, engaged in the accumulation of evidence upon the 
wide ranges of human activity within the province of sociology, 
was by no means due to the work of any one man; but, so far as 
one man may be said to have shaped the general plan upon which 
they were organized, Colonel Wright is entitled to the credit. The 
connection between his work in Massachusetts and the establish- 
ment of the bureaus in other States and at Washington is direct, 
and the influence abroad of the American bureaus may be clearly 
seen. The broad provisions of the legislative resolve creating the 



4 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

Bureau in Massachusetts were generally followed elsewhere. This 
resolve was not due to Colonel Wright's initiative, but the law alone, 
apart from the sane interpretation which he gave to it during the 
first years of his administration, would not have prevented the aboli- 
tion of the Bureau before it had won popular favor, nor would it have 
enabled the department to attract the wide public attention it after- 
ward received. With no previous scientific training which especially 
fitted him for work in this field, he nevertheless had native qualities 
of mind which pre-eminently qualified him for the faithful collection 
and unbiased presentation of evidence, in the form of statistics, re- 
lating to the most important problems of modern life. A New 
England ancestry gave him the advantage due to heredity, but aca- 
demic instruction had small part in his life. Like so many others 
in our history, he acquired self-culture based upon the reading 
required for admission to the bar, supplemented by extended study 
of the special branch of legal practice to which he proposed to devote 
his attention, the law of patents ; and, later, by wide reading in eco- 
nomics, especially upon social problems and other pressing questions 
of the day. Beyond this he had the training which neither books nor 
university can give, gained through sympathetic association with 
men of affairs; and he manifested the New England aptitude for 
turning one's hand to the efficient performance of the work which 
the trend of events makes necessary. He knew, instinctively, how to 
make the best use of present opportunity as a foundation of future 
success. 

II. 
Colonel Wright was born in Dunbarton, New Hampshire, July 
25, 1840. His father, Reverend Nathan R. Wright, was at the 
time pastor of the Universalist Church in the little town. His 
mother was Eliza (Clark) Wright, and the boy Carroll was the 
third of seven children. His ancestors, both paternal and maternal, 
had for many generations lived in New England, although upon 
his father's side the line runs to the north of England while his 
mother's progenitors were Scotch. Both of his great-grandfathers 
were in the army of the American Revolution, — one, Colonel Jacob 
Wright, afterward left Westford in Massachusetts to settle in New 
Hampshire, and the other, Deacon Jonathan Clark, went from 
Braintree into the same province, thus uniting the families from 
which Colonel Wright was descended. His parents soon removed 



A MEMORIAL. 5 

from Dunbarton to Hooksett, New Hampshire, and afterwards to 
Washington in the same State, where his boyhood was mainly spent. 
As in the case of many clergymen in rural New England, the pur- 
suit of agriculture was joined with the pastoral duties, and like 
other country ministers' sons under similar conditions young Wright 
until his sixteenth year helped in the farm work when out of school, 
receiving, through intimate contact with Nature in her varying moods, 
as she presents herself in the changing seasons upon the northern 
hills, a kind of discipline which city boys unhappily miss. Nature 
must often be wooed there with patient toil to yield such harvests 
as may be gleaned from the rock-bound fields of the hill towns, and, 
with no inborn aptitude for figures, he would sometimes humorously 
remark of these early experiences that the most familiar arithmetic 
of his boyhood was the figure that he cut behind the plow upon his 
father's farm. 

But his education was not neglected. Rarely has the country 
clergyman in New England failed to appreciate the value of books, 
and the boy's bright face and winning personality, and his keen 
intelligence, gave promise of a brilliant future. His father deter- 
mined that the lad should have such advantages as it was possible to 
secure. He went to the public schools until fitted to enter the acad- 
emy in the town of Washington, and afterwards, as his parents re- 
moved from place to place, he attended the high school at Reading, 
Massachusetts, and academies in Alstead, New Hampshire, and Ches- 
ter, Vermont. He early determined to study law, and in 1860, being 
then but twenty years of age, began a systematic course of reading 
in preparation for the bar, under the guidance of William P. 
Wheeler, a well-known lawyer of Keene, New Hampshire, the court 
town of Cheshire County. Without money, or friends who could 
supply it, unwilling, even had it been possible, to burden his father, 
whose slender income was no more than sufficient for the needs of 
a growing family, Wright had recourse to the usual expedient of 
young New Englanders under similar conditions, and by teaching 
school in the country districts where, during the winters, it was 
customary to employ a schoolmaster, gained such limited funds as 
with economy would carry him over the pathway he had chosen. 

From the first he took an interest in public affairs. The country 
was in the turmoil of politics that preceded the Civil War. Men 
were taking sides upon the question of the hour. Intensely interested 



6 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

in the debates between Lincoln and Douglass, although not yet a 
voter, with the ardor of youth he followed the fortunes of the Repub- 
lican party in that great campaign of 1860 which resulted in the 
election of Lincoln, and he remained a Republican in political affilia- 
tions until his death. 

In the Spring of 1861 his father became the pastor of a church 
in Franklin, Massachusetts, and the family removed from New 
Hampshire to that town. The young man secured a place in the law 
office of Erastus Worthington, of Dedham, who for many years was 
clerk of the Norfolk County Court ; and in the following year, while 
living in Cambridge, found opportunity to continue his legal studies 
in the office of Tolman Willey, of Boston. 

The great civil struggle had begun. Everywhere men were leav- 
ing the farm, the workshop, or the college to respond to the call for 
troops. Careers in the making were temporarily suspended. Text- 
books were closed and desks abandoned. Eor the moment all things 
gave place to the supreme duty of the hour. No young man of 
energy and ambition, filled with patriotic ardor, and with strong 
opinions upon the question at issue, could have taken any other course 
than that which Wright now followed. September, 1862, he returned 
to Keene, New Hampshire, and enlisted as a private in Company C, 
of the Fourteenth Volunteer Regiment of his native State. 

III. 

There was now shown a certain quality of leadership which always 
brought Colonel Wright to the front in any group of men with whom 
he happened to be associated. " As much virtue as there is, so much 
appears," says Emerson. Before his regiment left New Hampshire he 
became second lieutenant of his company, and this early promotion 
was simply the initial step in a series of official assignments to posi- 
tions involving honorable and difficult service. He was soon Brigade 
Commissary at Poolesville, Maryland; Officer in charge of the Cen- 
tral Prison at Washington ; Adjutant to the Provost Marshal in that 
city; and Aide-de-Camp to General Martindale, Military Governor 
of the Department. As Adjutant to the Provost Marshal he had 
charge of all the guards at the bridges and ferries around the Capitol. 
The effort to pass contraband goods through the lines was constant, 
those interested in the traffic were unscrupulous in their methods, and 
bribery was often attempted. Wright's position required not only 



A MEMORIAL. 7 

untiring vigilance but moral stamina ; qualities that might have been 
lacking in one so young, — he was barely twenty-three, and without 
much worldly experience. Under trying conditions he exhibited the 
executive ability and unswerving honesty that were always conspicu- 
ous elements in his character. 

In September, 1863, within one year after leaving home, he was 
appointed Adjutant of his regiment with the rank of First Lieu- 
tenant, thereafter serving as Assistant Adjutant General of the Dis- 
trict of Carrolton, Louisiana, and of the First Brigade, Second 
Division, Nineteenth Corps, in that State. In the following year he 
was assigned to staff duty, during the Summer and Fall, under Sher- 
idan in the Shenandoah Campaign, and at its close he became Colonel 
of the regiment in which two years before he had enlisted as a 
private. The strenuous service that preceded this promotion was 
not without effect upon his health. The marks it left upon him 
were never entirely effaced, and finally a severe attack of typhoid 
in the Spring of 1865 forced him to resign his command, one month 
preceding the close of the war. Broken in health he returned to 
Boston, at once resumed the study of the law in the office of Mr. 
Willey, and, as the result of diligent application, was admitted to the 
bar in Keene in October. But his physical condition was unequal 
to the strain. His continued ill-health made it impossible for him 
to enter upon practice in that city as he had intended. His physician 
thought it imprudent, and, forced for the moment to change his 
plans, he became connected with a business enterprise in Lynn, Mas- 
sachusetts, for which he had neither aptitude, training, nor inclina- 
tion, and which did not long continue. 

IY. 

January 1, 1867, Colonel Wright was married in Reading, Massa- 
chusetts, where he had formerly attended school during the pastoral 
connection of his father with a local church. His wife was Caroline 
E. Harnden, daughter of Sylvester Harnden, a well-known citizen 
and prominent manufacturer in the town, and Colonel Wright ac- 
quired a residence there which was to continue for many years. In 
August, 1867, he began practice in Boston as counsellor in patent 
cases, the branch of law to which his study had been especially de- 
voted. In October he was admitted to the bar in Massachusetts on 
motion of Mr. Willey, and to the bar of the United States Courts 



8 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

on motion of George S. Hillard, at that time District Attorney of 
the United States. His practice immediately became lucrative to 
a degree quite exceptional for so young a man. Apparently he had 
found his place in life, and his future seemed secure. 

He was then twenty-seven years of age, of distinguished presence 
and soldierly bearing, to which his military training had contributed ; 
in manner dignified, yet open and cordial, and possessing that pe- 
culiar quality called magnetism, by which men were attracted to 
him and held in the bonds of loyal friendship. He inspired con- 
fidence in his ability, but no less in his honesty and integrity of 
purpose. These personal qualities, together with the reputation he 
had won in his useful though brief military service and was now 
gaining as a rising member of an honorable profession, made him at 
once a leading figure in the town where he resided. 

This town was then not too large to prevent friendly relations 
among all its people. Homogeneous in population it was free from 
the cliques or artificial distinctions that are sometimes found in 
towns composed of widely separated classes. It was chiefly residen- 
tial, containing no one very rich or very poor, and had been little 
affected by the tide of immigration which was changing the character 
of the larger industrial places. Democratic in feeling, its citizens 
mingled in the celebration of the Fourth of July or upon other social 
occasions after the old New England manner. It had not outgrown 
the town picnic in the Summer, in which all participated, or the 
amateur dramatic performance in the local assembly hall in the 
Winter, supported by all with an enthusiasm that a more sophisti- 
cated age has made impossible. Such a town was prepared to accept 
leadership in the person of this accomplished young man who was 
ready to join with ardor in its social life. It was leadership con- 
ferred without self-seeking on his part, and it grew out of the condi- 
tions of the place and the time, and the natural qualifications of the 
man. He was inclined to promote the various civic activities, and 
those who needed helpful counsel, or more material aid, turned to 
him as a matter of course and found him ready with such assistance 
as he could give. He was devoted to the welfare and improvement of 
the public schools; active in the little church to which he gave his 
earnest counsel and support ; foremost in every social event ; a ready 
and convincing debater in town meeting, with gifts in oratory and a 






A MEMORIAL. 9 

facility of expression that were already lifting him to prominence 
upon the lecture platform. It was inevitable that his friends and 
neighbors should seek to confer political honors upon him. 

In 1871, therefore, he was elected to the State Senate from the 
district of which Reading was a part, and re-elected in 1872, his 
service in the Legislature thus comprising two successive years. In 
the second year he was chairman of the Committee on Insurance and 
of the Committee on Military Affairs. In this work he exhibited 
unusual capacity and was prominently connected with important 
legislation, perhaps the most important being the acts establishing 
the Massachusetts standard insurance policy and reorganizing the 
militia system of the Commonwealth. The last, especially, required 
for its successful passage knowledge of military affairs, capacity for 
devising an effective military organization, and the ability to present 
forcibly and convincingly, upon the floor of the Senate, the radical 
reforms proposed. Chief among these reforms was a system of service 
examinations for the militia officers intended to prevent the use of 
influence and patronage which then prevailed. The beneficial effect 
of this statute was sufficient evidence of the acumen of its legisla- 
tive sponsor. A measure of considerable public importance was pre- 
sented to the Legislature in that year by the late Josiah Quincy, 
providing for the establishment of morning and evening trains for 
working men upon the steam railroads within the suburban district 
of Boston, to be operated at low rates of fare. This was pushed to 
enactment largely through the energetic advocacy of Colonel Wright. 

V. 

The Legislature, merely by resolution passed in 1869, had estab- 
lished a Bureau of Statistics of Labor; probably without foreseeing 
the future importance of such an institution, and certainly without 
clearly defining its method of operation. It simply provided that 
biennially in May the Governor should appoint a Chief, that the 
Chief should appoint a Deputy, and that these two should " constitute 
a bureau of statistics with headquarters in the State House ; " and 
that the duties of the Bureau should be " to collect, assort, systematize 
and present in annual reports to the Legislature on or before the first 
of March in each year, statistical details relating to all departments 
of labor in the Commonwealth ; especially in its relations to the com- 



10 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

mercial, industrial, social, educational and sanitary condition of the 
laboring classes, and to the permanent prosperity of the productive 
industry of the Commonwealth." The Bureau was given power " to 
send for persons and papers, to examine witnesses under oath, and 
such witnesses " were to be summoned " in the same manner, and paid 
the same fees as witnesses before the Superior Courts of the Com- 
monwealth." Its first Chief was Henry K. Oliver and his deputy 
was George E. McNeill. Both these men held decided opinions upon 
certain phases of the labor problem then coming into prominence, 
and Mr. McNeill especially, was then, and until his death in 1906 
continued to be, a prominent leader in the organized labor move- 
ment in the State. The first report of the Bureau was presented in 
1870 and provoked much criticism. From that time until 1873 the 
Department was more or less involved in controversy. Under the 
conditions then existing it was not remarkable that certain important 
interests in the State regarded its operations and the conclusions 
presented in its reports with little favor. But the advocates of labor 
reform were by no means united in its support. It is not now neces- 
sary nor is this the place to revive controversies long since happily 
forgotten. These culminated early in 1873, and during the legisla- 
tive session of that year the question of continuing or abolishing the 
Bureau was debated with much heat, but without changing the status 
of the department, and outside the Legislature different factions of 
the labor element and representatives of capital were equally out- 
spoken in criticism. 

All this was the occasion of some embarrassment to the Governor, 
His Excellency William B. Washburn. To make the Bureau prac- 
tically effective, and to win for it popular favor, it was plainly neces- 
sary to secure as its chief executive officer a man of executive ability 
and of great tact ; neither so conservative as to be unprogressive nor 
so radical as to be impractical; sufficiently well known to inspire 
respect, and at the same time far enough removed from the contend- 
ing elements to command the confidence of the public. No man then 
in active public life seemed to the Governor so well adapted to this 
work as Colonel Wright. With his legislative career the Governor 
was familiar. He therefore sent for him and offered him the appoint- 
ment. Wright was at first disinclined to accept. At the moment 
such a place offered little that was attractive to a young lawyer who 



A MEMORIAL. 11 

had established a rapidly increasing practice. But, urged by the 
Governor, he finally consented upon the understanding that he need 
not abandon his profession, and that he need bind himself to remain 
no longer than to overcome, if possible, the existing disfavor in which 
the Bureau was held, and to organize the work of the Decennial 
Census of 1875, for which provision must at once be made. Neither 
Colonel Wright nor the Governor foresaw that in consenting to this 
arrangement he had taken the most important step of his life. In 
May, 1873, Messrs. Oliver and McNeill closed their connection with 
the Bureau, and were succeeded by Colonel Wright as Chief, with 
George H. Long as Deputy. 

Eight years had now passed since the close of the Civil War. The 
Nation had entered upon the era of unexampled prosperity which 
marked the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The old order was 
rapidly changing. Everywhere men were questioning the results of 
the great industrial revolution. Machinery was displacing manual 
labor. The cities and great manufacturing towns were drawing the 
young men away from the pursuit of agriculture. Capital was con- 
centrating in the hands of the great captains of industry. Individual 
employment was giving way to corporate organization, and the merg- 
ing of corporations was leading to those great aggregations of capital 
popularly known as trusts. The conflicts between capital and labor 
were becoming more bitter. The entrance of women upon factory and 
mercantile occupations was changing their status, perhaps threaten- 
ing the permanency of the family relation. 

For the manifest evils of this transition period panaceas were 
freely offered, and theories of social reform were passionately urged, 
with much a priori statement but often with little basis of fact. 
Socialism was rising, with its promise of a better social state; and 
anarchism, with its denunciation of the existing order. The eco- 
nomic theory of laissez faire was breaking down, and the methods 
of capitalistic production were seriously questioned by ardent the- 
orists who were no longer content to take their economic principles 
from the existing text-books. Every legislative body found it neces- 
sary to consider a mass of proposed legislation directly affecting the 
right of free contract as it was then held, nearly all of which carried 
the police power far beyond its existing bounds. The Massachusetts 
ten-hour law was not enacted until 1874. Employers' liability rested 



12 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

upon the common law only. The inspection of factories with its 
attendant sanitary regulations was practically unknown, and child 
labor was without effective restriction. Into the turmoil of the 
changing conditions Colonel Wright was forced by his appointment 
as Chief of this Bureau. 

VI. 

He entered his new office quietly, and found there neither records 
nor organization of any kind. The slate was clean, and his first 
duty was to determine a policy and then to devise methods for pur- 
suing it. The friends of Messrs. Oliver and McNeill were outspoken 
in their criticism of the Governor's action. The labor reform element 
generally, whether in complete sympathy with the views of the former 
officers or not, regarded the new Chief with suspicion. He had never 
shown much interest in the reforms they had at heart, and in the 
Senate had voted against the ten-hour bill. On the other hand, the 
employers of labor throughout the State felt, not without reason, 
that the Bureau had been established to placate the labor element, and 
were inclined to disregard its inquiries, if they did not resent them 
as impertinent. If their wishes had been respected the Bureau 
would no doubt have been abolished, especially after the experience 
of the preceding three years, and no appointment would, from their 
point of view, have been commended, if it promised a vigorous 
administration. No one impugned the energy or the ability of 
Colonel Wright. The popular feeling simply was that the Bureau 
existed merely to promote labor legislation. Indeed it was known as 
the " Labor Bureau." The representatives of capital expected it to 
show little consideration for their interests, and the representatives 
of labor looked to it for an energetic propaganda in their behalf. 
That statistics could be used, or were intended to be used, for any 
other purpose than to add weight to an otherwise weak argument 
neither side supposed. The thing to do was to choose your side, and 
then bring forward such figures as were needed to give verisimilitude 
to a bald and unconvincing narrative, leaving out or carefully obscur- 
ing all others. A Bureau of Labor Statistics, of course, was in- 
tended to give the weight of official authority to statistics selected 
to prove the contentions of the labor reformer. A chief who could not 
be relied upon to take this point of view was, by the labor element, 



A MEMORIAL. 13 

viewed with distrust. To those opposed to the Bureau, the mere fact 
that a man of Colonel Wright's training and position was willing to 
accept such an office suggested an ulterior motive. Did he not hope to 
advance his political fortunes by means of it ? 

But Colonel Wright had no desire to conduct a partisan bureau. 
He had far broader views. The friends of the Bureau were eventually 
to learn that their interests were best promoted by the unbiased 
presentation of all the facts, nothing extenuated nor aught set down 
in malice ; and their opponents were to find that they need not fear 
unjust treatment, even under a complete portrayal of existing con- 
ditions, when they were presented without prejudice. 

Colonel Wright began his new work with no pride of opinion as to 
its place in the scheme of government. He started with no precon- 
ceived notions as to the usefulness of such a Bureau, and without 
perfervid enthusiasm concerning the questions with which it was to 
deal. This was undoubtedly an advantage, probably unappreciated 
at the time. The one question he asked himself was whether or not 
the office could be made useful, not to a class, but to the public gen- 
erally. With the scientific use of statistics he was not then familiar. 
Neither then, nor indeed afterward, was he much attracted by the 
accepted theories of the economists. The immediate problem to be 
solved was a practical one. Here was an office unlike any previously 
established. It was unhampered by precedent. It contemplated the 
exercise of broad powers of public investigation upon matters hereto- 
fore covered by the cloak of individual privacy. The machine was 
now dormant. Every revolution of its wheels provoked animosity 
and clamor. Could it be made to work without friction and with 
beneficial results? 

There was one man in the United States whose opinion upon this 
point was pre-eminently entitled to weight. Francis A. Walker was 
then professor of political economy in the Sheffield Scientific School 
at Yale. He was deeply interested in economic questions, especially 
those relating to wages and production. He had completed with 
marked efficiency the ninth United States Census, and was there- 
fore familiar with the practical difficulties encountered in the col- 
lection, upon a broad scale, of statistics relating to the industrial and 
social life of the people. To him Colonel Wright turned, and in 
reply received the following letter : 



14 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

I have given much thought to the letter in which you do me the honor to 
ask me my views as to the work of the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor 
Statistics; but as the result, I find little to say beyond expressing my 
hearty sympathy with the purposes of your office, and my wishes for its 
success. I feel the strongest confidence that the Commonwealth is prepared 
for your work, and that the work can be done to the satisfaction of all 
citizens; and that your office has only to prove itself superior alike to 
partisan dictation and to the seductions of theory, in order to command 
the cordial support of the press and of the body of citizens. If any mis- 
take is more likely than others to be committed in such a critical position, 
it is to undertake to recognize both parties as parties, and to award so 
much in due turn to each. This course almost inevitably leads to jealousy 
and dissatisfaction. If an office is strong enough simply to consider the 
body of citizens, and to refuse to recognize or entertain consideration of 
parties, success is already in the main assured. Public confidence once given, 
the choice of agencies, the selection of inquiries to be propounded, are easy 
and plain. The country is hungry for information : everything of a statisti- 
cal character, or even of a statistical appearance, is taken up with an 
eagerness that is almost pathetic; the community have not yet learned to 
be half skeptical and critical enough in respect to such statements. All 
this is favorable to such laudable efforts as you are engaged in, for the 
difficulty of collecting statistics in a new country requires much indulgence; 
and I have strong hopes that you will so distinctly and decisively disconnect 
the Massachusetts Bureau of Labor Statistics from politics, — from de- 
pendence on organizations, whether of working men or of employers, and 
from the support of economical theories, individual views or class inter- 
ests, — as to command the moral support of the whole body of citizens, 
and receive the cooperation of all men of all occupations and of all degrees, 
without reference, however, either to their degrees or their occupations. 



VII. 

With these helpful suggestions before him, paying no attention to 
partisan clamor, disregarding the comments of the press, and making 
no answer to the criticisms of the labor reformers, Colonel Wright 
planned his first report, and with his usual energy began to collect the 
required data. He was content to await the verdict of the public 
upon the result. 

This report covered an exhaustive inquiry into wages and the cost 
of living in Massachusetts and foreign countries, and upon the gen- 
eral condition of the workingmen in this State as compared with 
those in other communities, especially in the manufacturing centers 
abroad. When only a part of the needed information had been se- 
cured, a leading newspaper remarked : 



A MEMORIAL. 15 

The results cannot be known until the report is published. But, certainly, 
no one can justly say that the bureau is not doing a good work. With the 
matter of regulating hours of labor, the bureau is concerned only to show, 
by facts and figures, whether a law for such a purpose would be beneficial. 
Indeed it is not proposed to volunteer any opinions on any subject, but 
simply to collate, from sources which are entirely reliable, facts which con- 
cern every workingman in the State, and by a knowledge of which he cannot 
fail to profit. Whatever opinion a man may have in regard to a ten-hour 
law, or an eight-hour law, or however he may be inclined to look upon 
rich men as conspirators against his interest, he cannot visit the Department 
of Labor in Pemberton Square, and fail to see that the chief and his 
deputy are honestly striving for the interests of the working man. No better 
thing could happen to a man who has listened to the invectives which have 
been hurled against the new Bureau of Labor than to go to the office in 
Pemberton Square and see for himself the work which is being done. If 
the forthcoming report shall contain more tables of fact and less disserta- 
tion than its predecessor, it will, for that reason, be more valuable to every- 
body, and especially to the worker who has been the victim of innumerable 
speech makers, but to whom nothing can be less dry or more interesting 
than the statistics which shall show to him how he stands in relation to co- 
workers the world over and what he has a right to demand from the State 
in which he is a citizen. 

The sentence italicized indicates clearly the position Colonel 
Wright had taken. In all his subsequent work it was maintained. 
His personal opinions, and he was not without opinions, vigorously 
expressed on proper occasions, were never permitted to break the 
force or to color the presentation of ascertained fact, in his official 
reports. His official position was, in his view, somewhat like that 
of a master, whose duty lay in the sifting of evidence and its presenta- 
tion to the court. In due time this first report was published. As 
indicated, it contained little dissertation, but its contents received the 
attention they deserved. From that time forward criticism was 
allayed, and the sincerity and non-partisan character of the Bureau 
recognized. Cavillers, of course, were occasionally heard. Those who 
had proposed to use the Bureau in propaganda could not have been 
expected to at once sympathize with the trend it was now showing. 
The ardent reformer can seldom brook the colorless presentation of 
evidence, even upon his own side of the case. To some, Colonel 
Wright's way of dealing with figures seemed cold and unconvincing. 
There are those who believe that exaggerated statements are necessary 
to stimulate progress, and Colonel Wright would never exaggerate. 



16 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

He would never dwell upon the dark side of the shield without show- 
ing whatever brightness appeared upon the other. The picture which 
he painted was seldom without high lights, but at least it was never 
distorted. Critics of a different temperament found it difficult to 
accept calmly this judicial attitude. At the other extreme were 
certain ultra-conservative representatives of vested interests whose 
comfortable satisfaction with existing conditions was disturbed by 
the light of publicity, and whose feeling toward the Bureau, with its 
periodical series of questions, was far from kindly. But gradually, 
the press, without regard to party, acknowledged the value of the 
Bureau, the Legislature relied upon its reports, and the public gen- 
erally accepted its conclusions and recognized the competency and 
fairness of its Chief. 

The year 1875 came and passed. In that year the Decennial 
Census of the State was taken by the Bureau, under an organization 
perfected by Colonel Wright and resting upon legislation enacted upon 
his initiative, with results far superior to any previously achieved in 
such work. The social and industrial condition of the Commonwealth 
was shown by it in such a way as to attract instant and wide atten- 
tion. The accuracy of detail, the lucid arrangement of the tabulated 
results, and the breadth and fullness of the analytical treatment 
shown in this work gave Colonel Wright an assured position among 
official statisticians in America. Incidentally, it established the 
Census system of the State upon a firm basis. This system was to 
be enlarged and perfected in later years, notably by Colonel Wright 
himself in 1885, and by others who were to come after him. As it 
grew in importance and magnitude, reflecting the growth of the 
Commonwealth, it was improved through the aid of staff officers and 
others whose assistance Colonel Wright was always quick to recog- 
nize and acknowledge. But, after 1875, its schedules and methods 
were deemed of such importance that the National Census office 
accepted the co-operation of the Bureau, its Chief (at first Colonel 
Wright in 1880, and afterwards his successors) acting as supervisor 
of the United States Census within the State, without partisan con- 
troversy, and with practically a free hand in the conduct of the work, 
to the mutual advantage of the Commonwealth and the Nation. 

The exacting duties incident to the Census, joined with those of 
the routine administration of the Bureau, required his entire atten- 
tion. The law is a jealous mistress and is content with no partial 



A MEMORIAL. 17 

service. The parting of the ways was reached. Either the work in 
which he was deeply immersed must he given up or his profession 
must he abandoned. His choice was at once made. He had not 
only found statistical research congenial, hut he had become inter- 
ested in its results and impressed with the importance to the welfare 
of humanity of a just solution of the complex problems that were 
daily becoming more pressing. Disregarding its possibly larger pecu- 
niary reward, he put behind him the profession upon which he had 
entered with such promise, and determined to devote himself to the 
newer field of work. At first, when the fate of the Bureau was hang- 
ing in the balance, he had cherished an honorable ambition to be of 
public service in another direction. There was some effort on the 
part of his friends, which he did not discourage, to send him to Con- 
gress from his home district. But the conditions were not favorable. 
Had they been otherwise the country might have lost its greatest 
statistician and gained a Congressman of energy and ability, but with- 
out the opportunity for distinguished public service that afterwards 
opened to Colonel Wright. In fact, his temperament was hardly 
that of the successful politician, who must often disregard his oppo- 
nents' point of view, or, if he would accomplish useful results, must 
frequently subordinate his private convictions to the exigencies of 
party. At all events, in unbiased statistical investigation political 
aspirations have no place, and these, also, were finally abandoned. 
He had made his choice, and thereafter there was neither retrogres- 
sion nor shadow of turning. 

VIII. 

In 1876 the position of Deputy to the Chief was abolished, leaving 
Colonel Wright the sole executive head. His theory of the non- 
partisan character of such a Bureau, exemplified by an administra- 
tion that was everywhere acknowledged to be free from either partisan 
bias or personal prejudice, was at length accepted. Even the labor 
leaders, who were at first disposed to regard the office as their especial 
prerogative, saw the advantage to them of such an administration. 
They could use the reports of the Bureau with confidence, since no 
one might impugn the figures on the ground that a labor advocate had 
secured them; and both labor and capital, whether or not the results 
of the Bureau's investigations were acceptable, relied upon the fair- 
ness of Colonel Wright. In the language of the day, they knew that 



18 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

they might expect a square deal from him. Twice during his incum- 
bency his term of service, limited to two years by the legislative 
resolve establishing the Bureau, expired while a governor of different 
political faith occupied the chair. But both Governor Gaston and 
Governor Butler reappointed him, and any other action would have 
received popular disapproval. He had so fully established the non- 
partisan character of the office that no governor has ever since raised 
the question of party affiliations in the selection of its Chief. 

While Colonel Wright continued at the head of the Massachusetts 
Bureau there was hardly a topic of importance within the range of 
sociological investigation which he left untouched, and to all of the 
subjects considered his researches contributed data previously un- 
known. The education of working children, the condition of work- 
ingmen's families, the social life of workingmen, illiteracy, the growth 
of manufactures in the Commonwealth, profits and wages, the rela- 
tion of intemperance to pauperism and crime, the question of divorce, 
co-operation and profit sharing, prices and cost of living, employers' 
liability, early factory labor in New England, the condition of work- 
ing girls in Boston, Sunday labor, factory legislation, strikes and 
lockouts, — these and other subjects were treated in elaborate inves- 
tigations which began with the careful preparation of schedules of 
inquiry, followed by intelligent agency work in the field, the final 
tabulation of results and their presentation in lucid statistical tables 
accompanied by sufficient textual analysis. No statistical work of 
this kind had ever been done before. The reports were in constant 
demand. They received European notice and favorable comment, 
and were used as text-books in the colleges, which were now taking up 
the study of sociology and the relation of statistical science to eco- 
nomic questions. 

Thus the permanence of the Bureau was assured, and liberal ap- 
propriations annually made for its support without protracted 
debate. It was now regarded not as an organ of propaganda to 
advance any particular theory, but as a source to which the legis- 
lator or the economist might turn for evidence upon existing indus- 
trial and social conditions, with firm confidence in its statements. 
Colonel Wright, if he had done nothing else, had made it clear that 
the usefulness of such a Bureau depended not upon the arguments 
its Chief might frame for or against the great questions that were 
agitating the public, but upon the clearness and completeness with 



A MEMORIAL. 19 

which it presented the facts upon which any valid argument must 
rest ; not some of the facts but all of them, so far as it was humanly 
possible to collect and show them. To him statistics were not mere 
figures to be carelessly used, nor, on the other hand, had they any 
peculiar sanctity. They were at best more or less imperfect evidence 
of facts which lay behind them, partial and approximate, frequently ; 
rarely final, and those of to-day perhaps to be made useless by others 
to-morrow. But, until superseded, to be given weight proportionate 
to the honesty and intelligence of the person who collected them; no 
more, and certainly no less. One who knew Colonel Wright well at 
this period remarked: 

His familiarity with figures has not bred a contempt but a profound 
reverence. No man knows better than he the value and the honesty of 
figures, and no man realizes more fully the grave responsibility which rests 
upon him who uses them. In his terse, lucid way of speech he is given to 
epigrammatic expressions. He said once to a friend : " Figures won't lie, but 
liars will figure." And he said again, " It scares me to death to hear people 
use figures loosely." These two expressions convey a very clear idea of the 
spirit with which he approaches statistics. He understands the faith that 
even careful minds place in figures, and he recognizes the ease with which 
figures can be made to misrepresent facts. Because of the danger that 
attends the misuse of figures, he has schooled himself into an absolutely 
impartial frame of mind, politically and economically, so that he approaches 
every investigation with a determination to accept unflinchingly whatever 
conclusion, however disagreeable, the figures may present. Obviously it 
requires a man of courage to do this, but then he always has had an abundance 
of that quality. 

Although the Chief, as a matter of principle, had refrained from 
directly advocating legislation, the investigations which he had con- 
ducted had materially affected the course of legislation, especially 
with respect to the employment of labor, and the establishment of an 
effective system of factory inspection, based upon a definite factory 
code. He was unquestionably right in his view that the results of 
such investigations, once the Bureau had established its title to con- 
fidence, would carry more weight with the public and with the Leg- 
islature than any personal argument however cogent. Indirectly they 
led to changes in the convict labor system, to the establishment of 
a Board of Arbitration, to the improvement of sanitary conditions 
in factories and workshops, and to reform in other industrial condi- 



20 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

tions. The investigations of the Bureau had an important relation 
to the establishment of effective provisions for the education of chil- 
dren in factory towns and to limit their employment to reasonable 
hours ; also to the enforcement of the ten-hour law, and its extension 
to other States than Massachusetts; and to the enactment of an 
employers' liability law. 

The Massachusetts statutes, passed under such conditions, served 
as precedents for similar legislation elsewhere. The reports of 
Colonel Wright on these and other subjects of proposed legislation, 
sent out from Massachusetts, were generally accepted as authorita- 
tive. The effect of such reports was cited in answer to those who, 
questioning the practical value of Bureaus of Statistics of Labor 
when conducted as offices of investigation merely, wished to see con- 
crete illustrations of their influence. The quiet man who had thus 
built up the Massachusetts Bureau was now exercising an authority 
far greater than any mere advocate of reform measures could possibly 
have secured. 

IX. 

The reputation of Colonel Wright grew with the results he had 
achieved. He became connected with the leading economic and 
statistical societies, and was in frequent request as a lecturer both 
upon the methods and theory of his work and upon its results. In 
1879 he was honored by an invitation to deliver a course of lectures 
before the Lowell Institute in Boston, upon " Phases of the Labor 
Question Ethically Considered ; " and having prepared a special 
report, in connection with the United States Census of 1880, upon 
the factory system of Europe and America, he gave a series of lectures 
on the factory system at Harvard University in 1881. The Lowell 
Lectures were followed in 1882 by the publication of a little book 
entitled " The Relation of Political Economy to the Labor Ques- 
tion," in which Colonel Wright reproduced without much revision 
the first lecture of that course. In characteristic phrase he dedicated 
this little volume to " sober, industrious, and thrifty workingmen, 
and humane, large-hearted employers, . . . two types of men I 
prefer to speak to." This book was never of great importance to the 
student, and has perhaps become still less so with the passage of time 
and the general change of sentiment with regard to its subject. As 
its author often admitted, it would have gained in literary style 



A MEMORIAL. 21 

had it been carefully rewritten. The spoken word, if effective, and 
Colonel Wright's platform utterances were always effective, will 
seldom hear unaltered transcription to the printed page. But this, 
after all, is a minor matter. The book was never much liked by 
economists of the type of Professor Sumner of Yale, and for reasons 
not far to seek. Had Colonel Wright been a trained economist he 
would no doubt have more carefully discriminated, in some of his 
phrases, between things that the Manchester school held far apart. 
His book might have gained thereby in scholarly clearness, but 
probably it would have lost the element of moral earnestness which 
alone gave it value. The spirit of his discourse is not obscured, and 
as a human document the little book is of great interest, since it shows 
plainly the natural bent of Colonel Wright's mind. After taking up 
the work of the Bureau he had read much upon the labor question 
and upon social problems generally. Whatever he may have lacked 
in economic theory, he was profoundly moved by ethical considera- 
tions ; perhaps as a result of paternal influence in that humble home 
among the New Hampshire hills. In all his future work the ethical 
bearing of the different problems with which he was dealing became 
his first subject of thought. 

The statements Wright put into this book show his point of view 
with regard to the labor question, — the position to which he had been 
brought by his reading and by his practical experience in investigat- 
ing social problems. He was afterward to gain in breadth and 
strength of statement, as his experience and reading broadened, but, 
essentially, his convictions remained unchanged. At the outset he 
says : " I shall constantly use the term i labor question ' as embracing 
the wants of the wage-laborer, or, in a general way, as representing 
the discussion of the just and equitable distribution of profits, or the 
products of labor and capital. " That is to say, the labor question 
was not a question of wages or hours of labor only. It comprehended 
all the varied wants of the laborer, and labor and capital were part- 
ners in a joint effort to produce a surplus product or profit, to be 
equitably distributed between the partners. This conception of the 
wage-earner, not as a servant or even as an employe of a capitalist 
whose obligations were discharged by the payment of a wage fixed 
under conditions largely beyond the control of the recipient, but as a 
partner with the capitalist in a joint enterprise, in the results of 



22 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

which each partner was to share equitably, was central in Colonel 
Wright's thought. And, from his point of view, the relations between 
the partners were reciprocal and fixed by considerations moral rather 
than economic. In dealing with industrial problems throughout his 
after life, even in the practical adjustment of serious labor difficul- 
ties in which he took an important part, we shall find him dominated 
by this conception. 

Profits, as he used the word, included not merely the capitalist's 
share of the joint product, but the common fund to be divided be- 
tween the partners. This showed a disregard of the common use 
of terms, to say nothing of the usual distinctions of the economists. 
But, terminology aside, the conception of industrial operations as in 
a very real sense cooperative, and of the relation of employer and 
employe as not confined to the mere payment and receipt of wages, 
was less familiar then than now. " A just distribution of profits," 
he goes on to say, " by which support and provision for old age may 
be secured, depends much more upon the cost of living, habits of fru- 
gality, temperance, good morals, sanitary conditions, educational 
privileges, and various forces of a moral nature, than upon purely 
economical conditions." 

The influence of Chalmers, of Le Play, of Walker, and of other 
writers to whom Colonel Wright returned acknowledgment is plainly 
seen in his little book, but he is entitled to credit for thus early bring- 
ing the new conception clearly before a popular audience. The essay, 
with others of a similar tenor, was afterward reprinted and, as one 
of the publications of the American Unitarian Association, attracted 
readers particularly interested in the moral aspects of sociology. It 
was without doubt helpful to clergymen who were beginning to dis- 
cuss phases of the labor problem, and who were naturally attracted 
by Colonel Wright's views. In its final paragraph, Colonel Wright 
said : " I have not been ambitious to promulgate these principles, 
or theories, if you choose, with an idea that they were to cure exist- 
ing difficulties, or prevent the recurrence of past evils, but simply 
to make a new application to the wants of the future industrial world 
of those principles which alone have been successful under like cir- 
cumstances in the past; and they are in accord with the Decalogue, 
the surest platform for the labor question — which involves capitalists 
and laborers — to rest upon, and by which to insure success." This, 



A MEMORIAL. 23 

also, is characteristic of his constant attitude. He always asserted 
that there was no panacea for industrial evils apart from the ten 
commandments and the golden rule. 

X. 

On the 23d of April, 1879, the Massachusetts Legislature sent a 
resolution to Congress asking for the establishment of a National 
Bureau of Labor. No greater tribute, although not so intended, 
could have been paid to Colonel Wright's administration. The same 
legislative body which at the date of his appointment, and for some 
time after, was upon the point of abolishing the Bureau it had 
created, was now moved by what he had accomplished to seek to 
introduce similar methods in a wider field. Congress did not then 
take affirmative action. Various bills proposing such a Bureau were 
afterward introduced, considered, and either postponed or rejected 
outright. Finally, however, the United States Bureau of Labor was 
established by an Act of Congress approved June 27, 1884. It was 
created as a bureau of the Interior Department, given broad powers 
similar to those conferred upon the Bureau in Massachusetts, but 
although the Commissioner was to be appointed by the President, 
the chief clerk was to be appointed by the Secretary of the Interior. 
Colonel Wright's experience naturally made him the one person in 
the country conspicuously qualified to organize the new Bureau. He 
was without question the man for the place, if he could be induced to 
leave Massachusetts. There were considerations of weight which 
made him disinclined to sever official relations which were now con- 
genial. In the Massachusetts office he was practically independent; 
at Washington he would become a subordinate officer of the Interior 
Department. There was also the possibility that the new office might 
be controlled in its investigations, and therefore limited in its useful- 
ness, by the personal idiosyncracies of the Secretary of the Interior. 
It was now Wright's firm opinion that statistical investigations such 
as were within the province of the Bureau must be controlled by one 
mind, free from the exigencies of party politics, and must not be 
complicated by possible differences of opinion between a cabinet 
officer, for example, and its nominal head. The wider opportunity 
offered by the National bureau was fully appreciated, however, and 
Colonel Wright decided to undertake the work. He was assured of a 



24 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

free hand in its administration, and, happily, there was never any 
friction between him and the Secretary, as long as that form of organ- 
ization continued. 

The election of 1884 terminated the Republican administration at 
Washington, and the propriety of leaving the appointment of a 
Commissioner open until after Mr. Cleveland's inauguration was 
considered, especially as Colonel Wright could hardly be expected to 
resign his position in Massachusetts if the incoming administration 
held different views from those of Mr. Arthur as to the new office. 
Mr. Cleveland, however, having been informed of the conditions, let 
it be known that he would himself nominate Colonel Wright if the 
appointment were not previously made; and the official relations 
between the new President and Wright were always cordial. 

The new Bureau was organized therefore by the selection of a 
Commissioner solely with regard to fitness, a result to which, as will 
be seen, Mr. Cleveland materially contributed. In January, 1885, 
Colonel Wright received his commission from President Arthur, and 
a chief clerk selected by the Commissioner was appointed by the 
Secretary of the Interior early in the following month. Colonel 
Wright was permitted to retain his connection with the Massachusetts 
Bureau until the important work of the State Census of 1885, then in 
progress, should be so far advanced that its relinquishment by him 
would cause no embarrassment. He remained at the head of the State 
Bureau, notwithstanding his appointment at Washington, until 
August, 1888, making frequent railway journeys to and fro as 
required for the administration of both offices. 

XI. 

On assuming the position of Commissioner of Labor at Washing- 
ton, Colonel Wright defined the policy of the Department as he 
intended to conduct it, in a letter addressed to the Secretary of the 
Interior, and there said : 

Declaring this, then, to be the positive policy of the Bureau of Labor, 
this office makes its initial work that of pure fact; and any desire on the 
part of individuals or associations of individuals, whether of labor or 
of capital, seeking more or less than this policy indicates, must be considered 
as their wanting the work of the Bureau to conform to adopted theories 
or to be influential to shaping special ends. This being the case, I trust 
that this policy will meet the approval of all engaged in carrying on the 



A MEMORIAL. 25 

industrial enterprises of the country, as well as of the Government which 
has so generously established the Bureau; and I assure you that no other 
policy can bring success, but that any variance from that declared will result 
in failure. ... It should be remembered that a bureau of labor cannot solve 
social or industrial problems, nor can it bring direct returns in a material 
way to the citizens of a country, but its work must be classed among edu- 
cational efforts, and by judicious investigations and the fearless publication 
of the results thereof, it may and should enable the people to more clearly 
and more fully comprehend many of the problems which now vex them. 

His first National report was promptly planned and in due time 
submitted. It covered the subject of industrial depressions. In 
this report, Colonel Wright also recommended that the Bureau be 
given authority to publish special reports, independently of its annual 
reports, whenever in the judgment of the Secretary of the Interior 
such reports might be of value to the public ; as, for example, when it 
might be wise to investigate promptly some great industrial move- 
ment. This authority was given. The next two reports related 
respectively to convict labor and to strikes and lockouts. The Bureau 
then ceased to exist as originally established, and was superseded by 
the Department of Labor, created by an act approved June 13, 1888. 
This was thereafter an independent department until, by the Act of 
1903, Congress created a Department of Commerce and Labor, and 
put under its jurisdiction, with other branches of the public service, 
the existing Department of Labor with the original designation of 
the Bureau of Labor. 

The character of the office was not changed, except through enlarge- 
ment and independence, by the Act of 1888. Its subsequent annual 
reports under Colonel Wright covered the subjects of working women 
in large cities; railroad labor; the cost of production in our great 
industries; industrial education; building and loan associations; 
strikes and lockouts; the work and wages of men, women, and chil- 
dren ; the economic aspects of the liquor traffic ; the effect of machin- 
ery upon labor; the municipal ownership of gas, electric, and water 
plants ; wages in commercial countries ; trade and technical education ; 
wages and hours of labor. Besides these, several special reports were 
issued under his direction on important subjects, including the social 
statistics of cities; divorce; labor legislation; compulsory insurance 
in Germany; the housing of the working people; the Gothenburg 
system of the liquor traffic, and others. By his recommendation the 



26 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

Department was authorized to publish regularly a Bulletin of Labor, 
in periodical form, the first issue appearing in November, 1898. This 
Bulletin was intended by the Commissioner to convey to the public, 
more promptly than could be done by the annual reports, the results 
of the minor investigations undertaken by the Department, and to 
contain digests of the State labor reports, and of the foreign docu- 
ments of similar character, and reprints, immediately after passage, 
of the labor laws of the Nation and of the States. 

Colonel Wright regarded this work as in the highest sense educa- 
tional. He believed that " the popular education of the masses in the 
elementary facts of political and economic science is the greatest 
educational need " of the moment, and, to use his own words : 

The Bureaus of Statistics of Labor are . . . facilitating this grand work 
by their faithful investigation . . . into all the causes of bad conditions 
of whatever nature, and by their fearless promulgation of the results of 
their investigation. . . . The character of the work of the Department has 
been critical, involving the closest application of the statistical method, and 
has been free to a large extent, if not entirely, from any desire to argue a 
point. If there have been errors in the origin of investigations they have 
arisen from a misconception of what constitutes labor statistics. A glance 
at the different volumes . . . may perhaps give the best evidence as to 
whether the Department has properly construed the character of its work. 

Again, as to the value of such statistics, he says : 

The altruistic spirit of the age undertakes to ascertain what social classes 
owe to each other, and statistical science helps the world to the answer. . . . 
If the answer is in the spirit of " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least 
of these, ye have done it unto me," then we have put the Christian religion 
into social science, have answered the question rationally, and must have 
the light of facts in order that the action, either of governments or of 
communities, under the spirit of this answer shall not be either futile or 
absurd. 

The reports contain a mass of information derived from original 
sources, reduced to orderly arrangement and accompanied by explan- 
atory comment and analysis ; and they are nowhere paralleled by other 
official documents. They are to be considered a series of valuable 
contributions to social and political science. The volumes impres- 
sively portray the intelligence, industry, and breadth of view dis- 
played by Colonel Wright during his twenty years in Washington. 



A MEMORIAL. 27 

XII. 

Besides the administrative work directly connected with the De- 
partment, Colonel Wright, by reason of his official position, was 
called upon to render other public services, sometimes of a confidential 
nature. Senator Hoar once referred to him as " the counsellor of 
several Presidents." His judgment and discretion could be relied 
upon. After the resignation of the Director of the Eleventh Census, 
Mr. Robert B. Porter, that great work was placed in his hands and 
brought to completion. His ex officio service in connection with the 
adjustment of serious labor troubles in the two following conspicuous 
instances was especially important. 

In 1894, controversy arose between certain railroads terminating 
in Chicago and their employes, leading to one of the most serious 
strikes ever known in the United States. This was generally re- 
ferred to as " the Pullman strike," since employes of the Pullman 
Company and other members of the American Railway Union were 
united upon one side against the General Managers' Association upon 
the other. Large losses were due to the controversy, in property de- 
stroyed and in wages sacrificed. The State and Federal military 
forces were required to suppress crime and preserve order. The 
whole country suffered on account of the suspension of traffic at 
Chicago, a great distributive centre. 

On the 26th of July, President Cleveland, by virtue of authority 
contained in section six of chapter 1063 of the laws of the United 
States, issued a proclamation announcing the appointment of a tem- 
porary Commission to examine the causes and conditions of the con- 
troversy and the best means of their adjustment. Colonel Wright, by 
a provision of the statute, being the Commissioner of Labor, became 
the chairman of this Commission. The other members were John D. 
Kernan, of New York, and Nicholas E. Worthington, of Illinois. In 
their report, besides presenting the facts, the Commissioners made 
important recommendations, among others the establishment of a 
permanent National strike commission to adjudicate labor contro- 
versies involving railroads, with powers similar to those vested in the 
Interstate Commerce Commission as to rates; the adoption by the 
States of a system of arbitration and conciliation like that, for in- 
stance, in operation in Massachusetts; the recognition by employers 
of labor organizations, to be dealt with through representatives, with 



28 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

special reference to arbitration and conciliation when disputes oc- 
curred ; and finally : " The Commission is satisfied that if employers 
everywhere will endeavor to act in concert with labor; that if when 
wages can be raised under economic conditions they be raised volun- 
tarily ; and that if when there are reductions reasons be given for the 
reduction, much friction can be avoided. It is also satisfied that if 
employers will consider employes as thoroughly essential to industrial 
success as capital, and thus take labor into consultation at proper 
times, much of the severity of strikes can be tempered and their num- 
ber reduced." The report was in effect a critical review of the whole 
controversy. It condemned, by implication and in direct language, 
the attitude of the employers in summarily rejecting the demands 
of the employes at the beginning. It was approved by the labor 
organizations, but strongly criticised by the conservative press. " It 
is not for us to say," said the American Review of Reviews, " whose 
hand prepared the document which the Commissioners present as 
their joint unanimous work, but it bears marks, from beginning to 
end, of the unusual knowledge, as to conditions of labor and employ- 
ment, which its distinguished chairman, Colonel Wright, has attained 
through many years of study and investigation. The Commissioners 
have met with a deluge of newspaper attacks and have even been 
accused of allowing Mr. Debs himself to write their report. . . . 
Whether one likes the document or not, it is weighty and it is destined 
to exert a lasting influence." 

The attribution to Mr. Debs of any part of the document was, of 
course, absurd. The suggestion as to the influence of Colonel Wright 
upon the conclusions of the Commissioners was probably correct. It 
is significant of the gradual change in public sentiment during the 
next eight years that another report upon a great labor controversy, 
which treated the matter from almost the same viewpoint, was re- 
ceived with general favor. 

In 1902, from May to October, occurred the great anthracite coal 
strike. This was probably the greatest strike on record. One hundred 
and forty-seven thousand mine workers abandoned their employment 
in May, and remained out until after the appointment of a Commis- 
sion of inquiry by President Roosevelt in October. The financial loss 
to all concerned was enormous, there was much inconvenience and 
suffering, and the results of the strike were felt throughout the 
country. The President acted upon the request of both operators and 



A MEMORIAL. 29 

miners, under an agreement between the parties to accept the findings 
and awards of the Commission. The Honorable Judge George Gray- 
was Chairman, and, by the consent of both parties, Colonel Wright, 
the Commissioner of Labor, was added to the Commission and became 
its Recorder. 

The Commissioners held numerous hearings, took a large amount 
of testimony, and made an exhaustive report with findings and 
awards which, under the agreement, became binding. Whether or not 
the Recorder framed the report, his well-known opinions are embodied 
in it. The following passage is a pertinent instance : 

When production is controlled despotically by capital there may be a 
seeming prosperity, but the qualities which give sacredness and worth to 
life are enfeebled or destroyed. In the absence of a trustful and conciliatory 
disposition the strife between labor and capital cannot be composed by 
laws and contrivances. The causes from which it springs are as deep as 
man's nature, and nothing that is powerless to illumine the mind and touch 
the heart can reach the fountain head of the evil. So long as employers and 
employes continue to look on one another as opponents and antagonists, 
so long shall their relations be unsatisfactory and strained, requiring but a 
slight thing to provoke the open warfare which is called a strike. It is in 
this spirit the Commission has made its investigation and submits its report 
and award, and it is in this spirit the award must be received by all the 
parties to the submission if it is to have the effect desired by them, and by 
all good citizens. 

There had been four demands by the miners: increase in pay; 
decrease in hours of work; the weighing of the coal mined when 
practicable; and the recognition of the union. The first two were 
compromised by the award of about one-half of the increase asked 
for; the third dismissed as asked for, but by the award conditions 
were reformed; and the fourth, while not formally approved, was 
practically secured by the award. The position taken by this Commis- 
sion was almost universally commended by the press, and this time 
the American Review of Reviews remarked : " The Commission's 
services to humanity are almost inestimable. It has made the most 
important of all contributions to industrial peace." 

It is of course invidious to select any one of the Commissioners for 
especial commendation. Their work was jointly done, and their 
report unanimously presented. To its conclusions, perhaps to its text, 
probably all contributed. Nevertheless, as in the case of the Pullman 



30 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

strike, Colonel Wright's knowledge of labor conditions, his compre- 
hension of the ideals of the working people and of the attitude of 
their employers, gained through long experience, made him an in- 
valuable member of the Commission, and his work upon it was ap- 
preciated by the others and especially commended by the President. 
For the arrangement of the statistics contained in the report he was 
responsible, but to one familiar with his theories upon the reciprocal 
relations of labor and capital, and as to their ethical basis, his influ- 
ence plainly appears elsewhere in the document. 

XIII. 

The example of Massachusetts in establishing the Bureau of Statis- 
tics of Labor was followed by Pennsylvania in 1872. In 1873, Con- 
necticut established such a bureau, afterward discontinued and again 
established. Bureaus were established in Ohio and New Jersey in 
1877 and 1878, respectively; in Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana 
in 1879 ; and in New York, California, Michigan, and Wisconsin in 
1883. In each case the essential features of the Massachusetts Bu- 
reau were adopted, with such minor differences of function or in or- 
ganization as were considered necessary to meet peculiar local 
conditions. In 1883, representatives of six of the twelve existing 
bureaus met at Columbus, Ohio, and adopted a form of organization 
for an annual conference or convention, which met the following year 
at St. Louis. Two additional departments had then been created, in 
Iowa and Maryland. The organization was perfected under the name 
of " The National Convention of Chiefs and Commissioners of Bu- 
reaus of Statistics of Labor in the United States." At this second 
meeting a committee considered the best form of organization of State 
bureaus. The report of the committee, presented by Colonel Wright 
and undoubtedly drawn by him, was unanimously adopted at this 
convention. It stated that the best organization of such a bureau 
consisted of a chief officer and subordinate officers and other assistants 
as circumstances might require, all however to be appointed by the 
Chief and subject to his control. Colonel Wright's experience in 
Massachusetts had shown this to be true, and it was therefore im- 
pressed upon his colleagues. The report also said : " The chief value 
of statistics is to be found in their preservation for comparison on a 
uniform basis and under the continuity of the system which comes 



A MEMORIAL. 31 

from one mind. A numerous Commission, or a Chief and a Deputy 
not under control of the Chief, cannot work with that singleness of 
purpose essential in statistical undertakings." Later in that conven- 
tion Colonel Wright presented a resolution, also unanimously adopted, 
which was of even greater significance, illustrating not only the con- 
victions of its author but intended to influence popular sentiment in 
the States which had already established bureaus and in those which 
were expected to do so. This resolution was as follows : 

Besolved, that the best interests of the State Bureaus of Statistics of 
Labor, and of the industrial forces of the Country, demand that such 
bureaus should be administered without reference to political influence; and 
that all officers of such bureaus should be selected for their fitness for 
statistical work, and not on account of allegiance to or services rendered 
any party. 

Thus early was Colonel Wright's influence felt in leading the 
bureaus in other States along the road he had already cleared in 
Massachusetts. He was recognized, by virtue of his pioneer work, 
as entitled to speak with authority. In many of the newly-established 
bureaus the officers were entirely untrained, and the high standard 
set by Colonel Wright in Massachusetts, and constantly adhered to 
by him in these annual conventions, was of the greatest possible 
benefit in restraining ill-advised action, and in unifying and improv- 
ing methods of administration. ~No one could attend these confer- 
ences, and be brought into contact with him, without gaining a 
broader view of his official duty. It was not unusual for a new Com- 
missioner, who perhaps had been selected for political reasons, to 
come to his first convention with either a vague notion of the work 
he had undertaken, or impressed with the idea that his office should 
be conducted as part of a political machine or in the interests of a 
class. Such a man seldom failed to return to his home with higher 
ideals gained through personal contact with Colonel Wright or in- 
spired by his remarks in the meetings. His continual influence in 
this way cannot be overestimated. It was exerted without ostentation 
but was none the less effective. Changes in the personnel of the dif- 
ferent bureaus were frequent. It was difficult to impress the appoint- 
ing power in the different States with the importance of continuing 
in office a Commissioner who had, by experience, gained some insight 



32 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

into his duties. The example in Massachusetts, with its unques- 
tioned benefit to the public service, was honored more in the breach 
than in the observance. Under these conditions, Colonel Wright's 
ideas upon official propriety, upon the place which a department of 
investigation should occupy, upon the value of statistics and upon their 
relation to sociological questions, set forth year after year in these 
conventions, were of the highest importance. A few illustrations 
will indicate the character of his remarks, and will show better than 
in any other way the theory upon which his own official acts were 
based. The third convention of Chiefs and Commissioners was held 
in Boston in 1885. At that time sixteen different bureaus had been 
established, and the officers of thirteen were present. Colonel Wright 
was then Commissioner of Labor at Washington as well as Chief of 
the Massachusetts Bureau. He was chosen President at this conven- 
tion, and remained President by successive re-elections, except in the 
years 1892 and 1893, until he closed his connection with statistical 
work in 1905. In addressing the Convention, Colonel Wright said : 

It has been my good fortune, as Chief of the Massachusetts Bureau of 
Statistics of Labor, to have the friendship, and, I am glad to say, the con- 
fidence, of the workingmen of Massachusetts, but there has been one point 
on which they have differed from me, and still differ, and that is in regard 
to the methods which I have adopted in administering the affairs of the 
bureau. ... It lies in this, that our labor reformers . . . have always felt 
that the bureau should be conducted as a means for agitating or discussing 
propositions for the amelioration of the condition of the working classes, 
rather than for the mere collection and presentation of facts. It is just 
here that we differ, even on questions where I have been in the fullest sympa- 
thy with them, and for this reason on my part: If a Bureau of Statistics 
of Labor presents facts, those facts will show their bearing and constitute 
the strongest arguments. If the bureau should simply present arguments 
even with the facts, or use its reports in agitating labor reforms, it becomes 
an advocate, and necessarily partisan in its views, and could expect to have 
but little weight attached to its conclusions. 

Again, at the fourth convention, held at Trenton, New Jersey, in 
1886, a resolution had been presented by Mr. Enos, the Commissioner 
from California, which sought to put the Convention on record in 
opposition to Chinese immigration. It was not adopted, but, after 
it had been disposed of, Colonel Wright said : 



A MEMORIAL. 33 

Our business is to collect information which shall bear forcibly and em- 
phatically upon the conditions of labor, and which shall tend to enlighten 
the public in regard to those conditions; but the moment the convention puts 
itself in the position of urging upon Congress or upon the legislatures of the 
States in which the various bureaus are situated, the enactment of any 
laws, however beneficent those laws may be, the convention puts itself in 
the position of a body of advocates, in contradistinction to the position of 
investigators. . . . 

To all these questions there are two sides, and one session of our convention 
may be called upon to pass resolutions memorializing Congress to adopt 
a certain measure, and the next ... to advocate the reverse. In either case 
the convention transcends its peculiar province as a body of investigators. 

The fifth convention met at Madison, Wisconsin, in 1887. In his 
opening address, Colonel Wright returned to the subject of non-par- 
tisanship in bureau administration. He said: 

I have often pointed out to the members of this Convention the dangers 
which may arise should the bureaus become the object of political contest; 
that is, should they be considered by the State governments under which they 
act as places for ordinary political service. Nothing can be more detrimental 
to the permanent uses for which the bureaus have been established. Let it 
be granted, if you wish, that they have been established in accordance with 
the demand of labor alone; let it be granted, if you wish, that they have 
been organized for scientific purposes; or let it be granted that they have 
been organized that capital may learn all the conditions of labor; what has 
all this to do with the legitimate work committed to our charge? It is 
our bounden duty to see to it that nothing goes to the people that is not 
absolute truth, so far as it lies in our power to give the truth. In this lies 
the key-note of the success of the bureaus. And it is a matter of congratu- 
lation to be able to say that notwithstanding the attitude of the executives 
of the different States to the bureaus, in so far as they may have in any 
instance considered them as the spoils of office, the gentlemen who have occu- 
pied the chief positions in these bureaus have been content to serve the best 
interests of the people without regard to their political proclivities and 
without regard to the fact that they may have been appointed for political 
purposes. . . . 

At this convention Colonel Wright also alluded to the distinction 
"between the bureaus in America and the departments devoted to 
official statistics in Europe. He pointed out the peculiar conditions 
under which the American bureaus were operating, and the necessity 
of establishing a high standard of official duty. He said : 



34 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

The European statistician, trained in the schools for his work, skilled by 
his experience for the very best accomplishments, has not yet devoted much 
attention to the line of investigations which are specifically the province of 
our bureaus. He has devoted himself to the movements of population, to 
the statistics of life; but he has not yet gone into the vital questions which 
grow out of the progress of industrial organization; he has not had the 
facility of governmental protection and stimulation, nor has he had the 
benefit of the great intelligence of the masses which comes from free 
educational custom. These give the American bureaus of labor an advantage 
over the governmental bureaus of statistics of European States. Our field 
is a broad, open one; our functions are of the most important character, 
and our services, our consciences, our abilities should be bent in the direction 
of exploring these broad fields in the most careful and accurate manner. 

The seventh convention met at Hartford in 1889. There were then 
twenty-one bureaus in operation, besides the department at Washing- 
ton. The progress that had been made deserved recognition, but the 
wider Colonel Wright's experience became the more he was impressed 
with the limitations of the work and the deeper moral responsibility 
he felt regarding it. This is shown in the following : 

Let me call your attention to the progress of the work of the bureaus of 
labor statistics in the United States; to the greatly increased interest which 
the work of these bureaus commands from all parts; to the support given 
to it by the manufacturers and workingmen; and to the confidence which 
the results of our labors inspire among all classes. These results are making 
actual contributions to political and economic science. The bureaus are 
not solving great labor or economic problems, but they are contributing 
most important information and presenting it without bias. It is not our 
business to seek or offer solutions; it is our business to collect information 
and present it impartially and fearlessly to the public. But the work in 
which we are engaged is surrounded by a great many difficulties. The 
limitations of the statistician's peculiar province are so great that after a 
wide practical experience, extending over sixteen years, I am sometimes 
somewhat discouraged. Our business is then, and under such circumstances, 
to do the best we can, and give nothing to the public but what has a sound and 
solid basis. 

At Philadelphia, in 1891, Colonel Wright, addressing the eighth 
convention, mentioned the establishment of certain foreign bureaus or 
departments of similar character, and referred to the influence of 
the American offices upon them, as follows : 



A MEMORIAL. 35 

There is no bureau in the old world that can accomplish what the most 
poorly-equipped bureau in our convention can accomplish. England created, 
a few years ago, a Correspondent of Labor, connected with the Board of 
Trade, one of the cabinet offices of the British Government. . . . There is 
not an office represented here to-day so poorly equipped as is that which 
stands for the "Bureau of Labor" of Great Britain. Belgium has estab- 
lished a Bureau of Labor which is doing most excellent work, but it also 
lacks equipment. The French Government is about to create a Commission 
of Labor, and is studying the work of the bureaus in the United States to 
see how best to carry on the service it will be called upon to perform; I 
believe ... it will accomplish more than either of the other creations in 
Europe. ... I assure you that foreign statisticians and foreign students of 
economic questions are very carefully following the work of our bureaus. 
. . . These gentlemen abroad are seeking the work of the American bureaus 
not only for standards for their own work, but as . . . suggestions as to 
what they should do themselves. 

Ten years later the British, French, Belgian, and Austrian govern- 
ments, as well as those of New Zealand, New South Wales, the Do- 
minion of Canada, and the Province of Ontario had followed the 
example of the United States in establishing Departments of Labor, 
adopting the essential features of the American plan. To this result 
the reports of Colonel Wright, his methods of work, and in many 
cases his personal advice had contributed. In 1902, in opening the 
eighteenth convention at New Orleans, he was able to refer to the 
Departments of Labor abroad, then established upon a permanent 
footing, in the following words, which recognized the influence of the 
American bureaus and at the same time were intended to bring to 
his colleagues a needed word of encouragement : 

I am sure that this great chain of European statistical offices would not 
have been established or completed had not the work of the State bureaus of 
the United States been fairly successful. . . . While your own people in 
your respective States may sometimes criticise you, and may sometimes ask 
what is the worth of the work you do, rest assured that it is appreciated in 
other countries. 

His own direct connection with the work was drawing to a close. 
He resigned his position as Commissioner of Labor in 1905. The 
twenty-first annual convention of Chiefs and Commissioners, or, as 
it was then called, of Officials of Bureaus of Labor Statistics of 
America, was held at San Francisco in September of that year. Be- 



36 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

sides the Department of Labor and the Census Office at Washington, 
the Department of Labor of the Dominion of Canada and the Bureau 
of the Province of Ontario, there were then thirty-three State bureaus 
connected with the Association. The seed sown in Massachusetts in 
1869 had borne fruit. Colonel Wright, acting under the advice of his 
physician, was unable to attend this convention, but sent to it, in 
manuscript, an address which was read by the Secretary. It was, in 
a sense, his valedictory. He said: 

I shall never cease to regret my inability to be with you on the occasion 
of our convention. Rest assured, my absence is not due to any personal 
desire, but to conditions which I cannot overcome. 

I have been with you and your predecessors at every meeting of the Asso- 
ciation but one, and have experienced your and their cordial support in 
presiding at all conventions but three since its formation. 

He then reviewed the official events of the twenty-two years during 
which the Association had existed, and continued : 

When it is considered that the life of the Association has extended over 
a period of the most marvelous industrial development the world has ever 
seen, and in a country that has outstripped all others in that development, 
and which covers what may be called the great era of strikes and labor con- 
troversies, the development of labor organizations, the complicated and ever- 
increasing economic and social problems, the vast influx of immigrants, the 
questions of taxation and the multitude of theories advanced on all hands 
for the solution of prevailing problems, it seems to me that the Association 
has conducted itself with great discretion, dignity, and wisdom. It is so 
easy to be led away by plausible arguments and to feel the necessity of 
endorsing some proposed scheme, that we are to congratulate ourselves that 
we have not been so led away, but have persevered in the distinct and 
legitimate work of the Association. But this is true of the individual 
bureaus as well as of their representatives in convention assembled. Every 
report that has come out of the bureaus, — and they now aggregate over 
600 volumes, — I have carefully scanned on its receipt, and I remember but 
very few instances, probably not half a dozen in all that vast number of 
works, where a Commissioner has taken it upon himself to argue for or 
against any special or prevailing theory. The Commissioners have been 
content to conduct their investigations with the sole view of arriving at 
the facts, and then systematizing and publishing them. The conclusion that, 
during all the industrial turmoil covering the existence of bureaus of statis- 
tics of labor in the United States, they have constantly gained in public 
confidence, cannot be avoided. 



A MEMORIAL. 37 

After pointing out some of the salient features of the different con- 
ventions he left with his colleagues these final words, his last official 
utterance as a member of the Association : 

I know of no greater crime than that of falsifying statistical returns. \ 
You, gentlemen, need no warning in this respect. You all understand it. 
You come to your work perhaps through political influence, perhaps as a 
reward for political labor, perhaps as a friend of the executive who wishes 
to do you a favor, but I have found this: that no matter what motive led 
to the appointment of the commissioners of labor, they have, with one or two 
exceptions, seen at once the sacredness of the duty and service committed 
to them. This has been an inspiration to me, but there has been a greater 
inspiration. . . . Our membership has represented all shades of political 
thought, of social and industrial and economic theories. . . . Yet you cannot 
find a single instance, through the whole twenty sessions of the past, when 
debates have been in the slightest degree acrimonious, or where there has 
been a single expression of ill-feeling or ill-will. . . . We have always met 
in the most fraternal spirit, discussed methods and kinds of work presented 
to our views fearlessly, but always recognizing the independence and equality 
of all other members. I do not believe this statement could be made of many 
associations with such varied complexions. We have never had any polit- 
ical differences. We have met in the North and in the South, in the East 
and the West, and no semblance of a sectional spirit has ever been dis- 
played. We have not been great men perhaps, but we have recognized the 
one duty before us and attended to it. . . . 

In parting with you officially let me assure you that my own interest in 
the work of the Association, in the work of each of your bureaus, will 
continue, and I shall hope to be with you at times to renew old associations, 
to become acquainted with new Commissioners, and to keep in touch with 
the statistical work of the country. . . . You have a grand mission to per- 
form and you appreciate the responsibilities placed upon you. ... Statistical 
investigations are in their infancy. The methods of statistics will become 
more scientific, more analytical, results will be reached that are not now 
comprehended, co-ordination will succeed confusion and chaos, classifications 
will be broader and more far reaching; in all these things you perform your 
part. 

No one knew better than the members of that convention how 
much Colonel Wright's personal influence, — his tact and intellectual 
poise, — had contributed to the harmony which had marked the 
annual meetings during the twenty-two years that had passed since 
the little group of officials assembled in Columbus in 1883. ~No one 
appreciated more fully than they how much his advice had aided in 



38 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

holding the bureaus to a high standard, and how much the work of 
statistical investigation in the United States had profited by his 
example, and by the fruits of his experience, freely shared with his 
colleagues. He alone, among those then connected with the Associa- 
tion, had served continuously since it was organized. His official life 
since he accepted appointment at the head of the Bureau in Massa- 
chusetts had continued thirty-two years. From the establishment of 
the Massachusetts Bureau down to 1905, one hundred and seventy 
different persons had held the position of head of a bureau, either 
designated as Commissioner or Chief or by an equivalent title. 
Hardly one of them had entered upon his work without in some way 
availing himself of suggestions made by Colonel Wright. With prac- 
tically all of them he had had personal relations growing out of their 
official position. Only ten of the whole number had served ten years 
or more. At the date of this twenty-first convention, the Commis- 
sioner in Maine had served eighteen years, but, with this exception, 
there were but ten men in charge of bureaus in the United States who 
had been in office iive years. Four of these had served eight years 
and two six years. With such brief tenure of office on the part of 
those administering the bureaus, the importance of Colonel Wright's 
influence is apparent. 

Before the convention adjourned the following resolution was 
adopted : 

Whereas : The Hon. Carroll D. Wright, for twenty years the United States 
Commissioner of Labor, and covering a period of twenty years the President 
of this Association, has retired from the field of statistical work to take 
lip important duties in the field of collegiate education; and, 

Whereas: He has been one of the foremost pioneers in the field of labor 
statistics, and has won an international reputation in this domain of work; 
and, 

Whereas: To the example he has set and to the efforts he has made in its 
interest this Association owes much of its usefulness and success; therefore, 

Be it resolved, That the Association of Officials of Bureaus of Labor 
Statistics of America, in convention assembled, at San Francisco, take this 
occasion to record the high professional and personal esteem in which its 
members hold the Hon. Carroll D. Wright, the sense of loss they feel at 
his retirement from the common field of labor, the deep appreciation of the 
debt they owe him for his long and untiring labors in the interests of this 
Association, and for the inspiration he has been to them in their work of 
statistical investigation. 



A MEMORIAL. 39 

XIV. 

During the last years of Colonel Wright's connection with the De- 
partment of Labor the disease which finally overcame him was grad- 
ually making the performance of his work more difficult. He fought 
bravely, and for the time succeeded in keeping it at bay. Mean- 
time the change in organization whereby the Department became a 
bureau under the Secretary of Commerce and Labor restricted, in 
theory at least, its independent action. To Colonel Wright, had he 
remained at its head, this would probably have made little difference, 
but it became possible to return to Massachusetts under exceedingly 
congenial conditions. The trustees of Clark College, in Worcester, 
were preparing to organize that institution, and they tendered the 
presidency to Colonel Wright. Upon deliberation he accepted, en- 
gaging in the preliminary work while still remaining in Washington, 
and after his resignation of the Commissionership of Labor in 1905 
devoting himself entirely to his new duties. 

Clark College was established by the will of the late Jonas G. 
Clark, of Worcester, under conditions somewhat different from those 
of other collegiate institutions. It was Mr. Clark's belief that the 
average student might materially shorten his college course without 
injuriously affecting his preparation for his life work. He therefore 
provided a foundation for a college which should offer to young men 
a regular three years' course of instruction leading to the degree of 
Bachelor of Arts. Out of his great wealth he also provided for a 
university, and this was put in operation before the college. But the 
separating line between the university and the college was sharply 
drawn. Each institution had its own funds, its own president and 
faculty. The opportunity was open to develop the college and the 
university side by side with perfect harmony and yet independently. 

The scheme of a three years' course leading to a degree was not in 
itself novel, provision having been made in other colleges for confer- 
ring this degree upon students who were able to cover the four years' 
requirements in the shorter time. But Clark College was to be a 
regular three-year institution, and was to offer only the Bachelor's 
degree. It was to start unhampered by traditions that might interfere 
with this plan. It possessed an endowment sufficient for its needs, 
regardless of tuition fees, and therefore need not fear to decline to 



40 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

receive or to retain students not up to its standard. This, and other 
distinctive features, seemed likely to attract to it a body of earnest 
students. In the words of its catalogue, " This college desires to 
attract only men of worth. It is not solicitous as to the number of 
students it receives or the number it retains, and it is its constant 
practice to require the withdrawal of men who make plain their ina- 
bility or disinclination to do the work set before them." In short, to 
quote again, " Clark College might be described as a hard-working 
academic democracy. There are no social distinctions and no class 
enmities. A general feeling of good fellowship prevails among the 
students themselves and between students and faculty. Such an 
environment fosters friendly competition and keen intellectual enthu- 
siasm. It establishes a standard of honest endeavor, gentlemanly 
conduct, and loyalty to obligation." 

This was a programme, not an accomplished fact, when Colonel 
Wright went to Worcester, but he was in entire sympathy with the 
scheme. To make this ideal real he devoted the few remaining 
years of his life. The time, although short, was sufficient for him to 
impress his individuality upon the college. With untiring energy, 
working often beyond his strength, fighting against odds with un- 
abated courage, he gave himself to the details of organization. His 
plans were not completed when he was called upon to lay down the 
burden, but Clark College was an entity not merely a dream, and it 
had found an established place among the educational institutions of 
which the Commonwealth is justly proud. It was a matter of regret 
to him, as he found the end approaching, that he had not quite realized 
his hopes; that some things still remained undone. But to one of 
Colonel Wright's temperament this regret would have remained had 
the time of passing been longer delayed. His ideal was always in 
advance of his achievement, however honorable his achievement may 
have seemed. While at Clark College, Colonel Wright accepted ap- 
pointment upon the State Board of Education, remaining a member 
until his death. 

XV. 

Colonel Wright had received various appointments to lecture upon 
statistics and social economics during his long official service in Wash- 
ington, not only upon the lecture platform but in connection with 
college courses; and he was a frequent contributor to periodicals, 



A MEMORIAL. 41 

writing upon subjects connected with his work. The lectures upon 
the factory system at Harvard, 1881, have been mentioned. He after- 
ward lectured upon statistics of labor at Johns Hopkins, the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, the Northwestern University of Illinois, and 
again at Harvard. He was honorary professor of social economics 
at the Catholic University of America, 1895 to 1904; professor of 
statistics and social economics at Columbian (now George Washing- 
ton) University, after 1900; and, besides the presidency of Clark 
College, held the professorship of statistics and economic science in 
Clark University from 1904. He was a member of the American 
Unitarian Association, its president during the years 1896-1899, and 
prominently identified with its denominational and educational work. 
He was a member of many learned societies, including the American 
Statistical Association from 1876 (its president from 1897, until his 
death) ; fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, from 1892; member of the American Antiquarian Society, 
from 1893 ; and of the Washington Academy of Science. He was a 
trustee of the Carnegie Institution from its foundation in 1902. The 
foreign learned societies with which he was connected include: the 
British Economic Association, from 1891 ; the Royal Statistical So- 
ciety of England, from 1893 ; the Society of the Eriends of Natural 
Sciences, Anthropology and Ethnography at the Imperial University 
of Moscow, from 1904; the International Association for Compara- 
tive Jurisprudence and" Political Economy, Berlin, from 1897; corre- 
sponding member of the Institute of France, from 1898 ; honorary 
member of the Imperial Academy of Sciences, Russia, from 1898. 

He received the following honorary degrees: A.M., Tufts, 1883; 
LL.D., Wesleyan, 1894; Clark University, 1902; Tufts, 1902; Am- 
herst, 1905; Ph.D., Dartmouth, 1897. He was a member of the 
Military Order of the Loyal Legion, had received the Cross of the 
French Legion of Honor, and was a Chevalier of the Order of Saints 
Lazzaro and Mauritz, Italy. 

Besides his contributions to periodical literature he had published 
several volumes. A bibliographical list of his principal writings may 
be found in the Quarterly of the American Statistical Association 
for September, 1909 ; new series No. 87. 



42 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

XVI. 

Colonel Wright's life aptly illustrates the truth that the things men 
accomplish, which really count, are often not those they set out to do 
with deliberate intention. He fitted himself for the practice of the 
law, and, with natural graces of oratory and a distinguished and mag- 
netic personality, entered political life with prospects of going far 
in that direction. But it was neither at the bar nor in the field of 
partisan politics that he was destined to expend the energy and talent 
with which he was so richly endowed. With no particular love for 
statistics, he was nevertheless to devote the best part of his life to 
their collection and interpretation. With no prior attraction to the 
problems of labor and capital, it was to him, more than to any man 
during the strenuous last quarter of our most strenuous industrial 
century, that men were to look for a wise solution of those problems. 
He won an international reputation for honesty of intention and 
fullness of achievement in the field of sociological investigation be- 
yond that of any other man. His conclusions were sometimes ques- 
tioned, but no one could ever fairly question the integrity of his 
methods. 

With high endeavor he gave the best service of which he was capable 
in the ever-widening opportunities of usefulness that came to him. 
The course that opened before him he followed with energy and 
singleness of purpose, although in a different direction from that he 
would have chosen at the beginning. Whether as statistician, sociolo- 
gist, or economist, Colonel Wright was an ethical teacher. His best 
work was educational, along ethical rather than coldly intellectual 
lines ; and the service he was more or less unconsciously performing, 
whether in Massachusetts or in Washington, whether regarded in its 
bearings upon the special interests involved, in its effect upon the 
public to whom he made his wider appeal, or upon the young men 
who finally came within the sphere of his influence, was essentially 
the service of an ethical teacher. 

That part of his work which will probably live longest will not be 
the expansive volumes which contain the results of his elaborate sta- 
tistical investigations, valuable as these may be, but the papers and 
various addresses through which he sought to give an ethical inter- 
pretation to the trend of social progress. No one can measure the 
indirect influence which his words have had and will continue to 



A MEMORIAL. 43 

have in modifying or in inspiring the teaching of others — clergy- 
men, professors, and students of social problems. This indirect influ- 
ence of his life, very great because of the authority with which he 
spoke, and because of the various channels through which he was 
able to direct its course, is undoubtedly his most enduring monument. 

His success was largely due to certain qualities which would havQ 
made him distinguished in the law. He could always see both 
sides of an issue and determine a controversy with judicial fairness. 
Neither a trade unionist nor a capitalist, he had the power of dis- 
tinguishing the elements of justice in the conflicting claims of each, 
and of adjudicating their differences, so as to bring the contestants 
together on a platform of reciprocal relations. He could make the 
capitalist see the good points in unionism, or the unionist recognize 
that the capitalist was not necessarily his enemy; and in addressing 
the general public he was able to present the phases of the conflict 
in such a light as to win a large measure of sympathy for the conten- 
tions of labor without exciting that animosity against capital which is, 
unfortunately, too easily aroused. Without the slightest sacrifice of 
principle he was a peacemaker, founding his appeals on ascertained 
facts, and upon the sentiment of human brotherhood that lies at the 
heart of Christianity, rather than upon a priori economic theory. 

He was called an optimist but his optimism was supported by a 
faith strengthened, no doubt, by his early training, but in large part 
due to his temperament. This faith gave to every utterance of his a 
hopefulness quite unusual in current economic discussion. Upon 
points of dogmatic theology he had little to say, but he believed firmly 
in the essentials of practical religion, and few men in dealing with 
the difficult social questions that in one form or another engaged his 
attention, could so carry to the mind of the man or woman of ordinary 
intelligence the conviction that such questions have no other solution 
than through the application of these essentials in life. He never 
lost courage under the discouragements that are inseparable from the 
vicissitudes of life, and he inspired courage and enthusiasm in others. 
Few men had a wider range of acquaintances than he, a more mag- 
netic personality, or a greater power of attracting and holding friends. 
He was also a good judge of men, of their capacity for work, of their 
qualifications for especial duties. He drew around him from time 
to time efficient aids, from the colleges or from the ordinary walks of, 
life, selecting with keen discernment the kind of man required for the 



44 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

particular work in hand, and promptly acknowledging the services 
rendered by his official staff. 

When Colonel Wright was appointed Chief of the Massachusetts 
Bureau, in 1873, a newspaper correspondent of high reputation, who, 
being long dead, need not be named, wrote to his paper as follows : 

The appointment of Carroll D. Wright as Chief of the Labor Bureau is 
the strangest piece of blundering, almost, that I ever heard any of our 
governors to be guilty of. . . . His appointment will probably complicate 
the existing difficulties of the Bureau with those who are interested in labor 
questions. ... I should say, that if his excellency had chosen by lot out of 
all persons who would probably be named, he would not have made a worse 
selection, under the present circumstances. 

The result could not have been foreseen by Governor Washburn, 
but during his administration he did no better thing for the Common- 
wealth and for the Nation than to make the appointment thus criti- 
cised. Measured by the fruits of the life now ended the statement of 
the correspondent shows the futility of human prophecy and the 
weakness of human judgment. 

Colonel Wright died in his prime, still in harness, sparing nothing 
of himself from his work, when to spare might have meant prolonga- 
tion of his days. Yet he lived long enough to see firmly established 
the institutions he had upbuilt and the theories for which he had 
contended. His ashes lie in the peaceful Laurel Hill Cemetery at 
Reading, the town in which he began his married life, where his two 
children, Cornelia E. (Wright) McPherson and Grace D. (Wright)' 
Capen, who, with his wife, survive him, were born, and where he 
lived until his removal to Washington. For this town, and for his* old 
friends and neighbors, he retained a warm regard, and for many years 
he cherished anticipations, never realized, of returning to them. Not 
far away is his former home, now materially changed by the inroads 
of trade upon the main street of the town ; and, near it, the church 
to which he was devoted when in residence there. The grave is 
marked by a simple memorial of granite, bearing no inscription other 
than his name and the date of his birth and death. Against the state- 
ment of the newspaper correspondent quoted above may be placed 
another, written of him by Theodore Roosevelt, to which many others 
who knew Colonel Wright would, with full hearts, subscribe : " He 
was a public servant of the highest type. I mourn him as such, and 
I mourn him as a personal friend.** 



A MEMORIAL. 45 



Address of Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, D.D., 

Delivered at the Funeral Services of 

CARROLL D. WRIGHT, 

in the Church of the Unity, Worcester, February 24, 1909. 



We have often been told that we Americans are interested only in 
money getting; that we worship no God but the God of the market 
place; that we pay our homage primarily to men with large powers 
of acquisition. How utterly false is that estimate of the American 
spirit! This gathering, representative of the best life of the Com- 
monwealth, testifies to the fact that what Americans primarily honor 
is public serviceableness. 

What a rich and varied life it was! How many the points of 
contact with the crowded activities of an eventful age ! What rare 
adaptation to a career of manifold usefulness ! What rounded com- 
pleteness of achievement ! Other friends we have had who attracted 
us through some peculiar gift or faculty, or the possession of some 
special virtue, but in Colonel Wright it was the whole individual 
that won our love and admiration. Here was a man who took life 
in a large way, unvexed by disappointments, unspoilt by successes, 
giving wholesome energy to many enterprises. The champion of 
many good causes he escaped the narrowness that comes from devo- 
tion to a particular cause. 

I cannot begin to enumerate all the duties done or trusts dis- 
charged or honors modestly worn. Soldier, lawyer, teacher, head of 
the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, United States Com- 
missioner of Labor, Director of the Eleventh Census, arbitrator of 
industrial disputes, author and lecturer, officer and trustee of many 
educational, philanthropic, and religious institutions, college presi- 
dent. In almost all of the many different occupations in which he 
engaged he began at the bottom, doing his duty in a humble place, 
and by proved capacity rose to the top. A boy of twenty-one, he 
enlisted as a private in the army of the Union and came out at the 



46 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

end of the war the colonel of his regiment. He began teaching in 
a district schoolhouse and ended a college president. He began pro- 
fessional life as a boy in a lawyer's office and rose to be our most 
distinguished economist and statistician. The son of a New Eng- 
land country minister, he began his connection with religious affairs 
at the very entrance of the Sunday-school and he ended as the presi- 
dent of a great national conference. 

In domestic or professional life, in civil, military, educational, and 
religious affairs he displayed the same consistent traits of mind and 
heart. He was honorable and true, just and generous. He had firm 
convictions and moral courage. The armor of his honest thought 
sufficed to shelter him from the seductions of mere conformity. His 
tastes were democratic, his speech plain, his sense of humor keen, 
his temperament optimistic. He hated bigotry and hypocrisy and 
was readily won by sincerity and directness. His spirit was that 
of consecration to duty without saying much about it. 

From the mere passing impression which he made on casual ac- 
quaintances one discovered the sterling quality and symmetry of his 
character, his rational confidence in American institutions, and the 
abiding sense in his soul of the reality of the things which are not 
seen and eternal. Devotion to the public good and obedience to the 
call of his country were his distinguishing characteristics. His pub- 
lic life was long and unblemished, and the confidence of the Nation 
rewarded his unmistakable devotion to the public welfare. His ca- 
reer afforded to his powers large opportunities for exercise, growth, 
and successful activity, yet he never thought of himself more highly 
than he ought to have thought, but judged himself by a standard 
higher than that to which he achieved. He saw things in right pro- 
portions. He was always willing to hear the opinions of others and 
able to defer making up his mind until a case had been thoroughly 
presented. That which he knew himself capable of doing he was 
honorably anxious to do and to all his tasks he brought unfailing 
tact and good temper and great executive ability. 

In public office it is impossible to overestimate the efficiency which 
he put into what seemed the common round of daily duty. His 
time was elastic and seemed always to stretch to new demands. He 
was a wise administrator, a conscientious trustee of public powers, 
an enlightened friend of business methods and of the principles of 



A MEMORIAL. 47 

civil service reform, believing in appointment and selection by merit, 
in tenure during competency and good conduct, and in promotion for 
cause. ~No suspicion of self-seeking could ever rest upon. him. His 
integrity was something more than honesty. It was the explicit 
utterance of whatever thought or feeling any other person had a 
right to know. He assumed nothing on the score of public place. 
Humanity meant to him more than its differences. He met people, 
rich and poor, high and humble, on common ground. His whole 
social influence and his intercourse with all sorts and conditions of 
men tended toward a leveling upward, the raising of the grade of 
those who came in contact with him. He believed in the American 
people and had a genuine, thoughtful regard for his fellow-men. 
His habits were those of perpetual industry and a careful economy 
of time. It will be found that the portion of his life-work which 
had not a direct reference to the well-being of his fellow citizens was 
surprisingly small. 

As a statistician he was our highest authority. A competent 
statistician requires four gifts of nature. First, accuracy, a desire 
for the exact truth which grudges no time and pains in tracing facts ; 
second, discernment, which can discover in isolated facts the basis 
for some judicious generalizations, or the illustration of a principle ; 
third, patient judgment, which subjects all inferences and general- 
izations, both one's own and other people's, to searching review and 
weighs their validity in delicate scales. Some men are quick in ob- 
servation and fertile in suggestion whose conclusions are worthless, 
because they cannot weigh one argument against another. Others, 
while honest and careful, are unable to combine facts and set forth 
principles. To accuracy and keen observation and sound judgment 
Carroll Wright added the fourth indispensable quality, — the gift 
of expression. He could make pallid facts spring into vivid life. 
He could turn sight into insight. 

There have been economists who were equally prolific and perhaps 
more learned, some whose accuracy was as scrupulous and whose 
judgment was as cautious, but none in whom so much knowledge 
and so wide a range of interest were united to such power of pre- 
senting the results of investigation in such pictorial form. The com- 
bination of the gift for patient and impartial research with the gift 
of readable exposition is rare. 



48 CARROLL DAVIDSON WRIGHT. 

To the presidency of Clark College he brought broad experience 
and a restless energy combined with genial sympathies. He exerted 
discretion in the selection of teachers, upheld them in their influence 
and authority, made himself a beneficent friend among the students, 
stimulating their intellectual efforts and their moral purposes and 
making them feel that they had in him a cordial well-wisher who 
would never fail in their need to give them his countenance and aid. 
He did not pretend to possess deep or varied learning on subjects 
outside of his own field of research, but he made up for this lack by 
practical common sense and unusual ability to understand human 
nature. 

In his home and in his social relations he was a man to be re- 
joiced in and to take pattern from, and while none failed to do him 
honor he was most loved where he was best known. He was a man 
of many friends, always kindly, tolerant, attractive, and his attach- 
ment to those he honored with his friendship was strong and un- 
changing. He was a charming companion and could gather from 
his varied experiences many an enlivening anecdote, for though he 
was a man who took life seriously there was always a wholesome and 
cheerful tone about his ways and his conversation. 

We who were made glad by his fellowship may rejoice to-day to 
remember the virtues that grew with his growth and strengthened 
with his strength, the posts of usefulness and honor met and filled 
with fidelity, the good causes sustained and guided with prompt and 
intelligent devotion, the years of successful industry in public life 
and of manly tenderness in domestic relations. That path of service 
has no ending. In the maturity of his powers his earthly career has 
been arrested, yet is the message to us still a message of abundant 
life. His very going may have power to waken in our minds a 
deeper sense of the blessings we enjoy in a free land and a free 
church and of the obligation of public-spirited service and private 
honor which rest upon us. He has left us the inspiration of that 
which the grave cannot enclose nor death itself disintegrate, — the 
solid substance of a firm-knit character. May our mourning be 
turned into prayers of gratitude for the life lived so long and so 
nobly with us, the life of good comradeship, useful activity, broad 
humanity, and sincere and simple Christian faith. 



